PrepTalk

"My district is using the new Common Core State Standards, but we are using the NWEA's MAP® testing system. I am wondering if my students stand a chance on the state exam? Are the two aligned?" "RIT Scale- Since the RIT scales are independent of standards alignment, transitioning between two tests is not anticipated to have a significant impact on students' RIT scores, so long as a suitably rigorous CCSS- aligned curriculum has been fully implemented." NWEA (Click on the link to read the NWEA's explanation)

For years educators have heard that schools should be run like businesses, as an educator, for once I agree. I think that it would be nice if we would note what is currently in the news concerning what business has learned about evaluating its employees. Much has been written of late on the clear demise of what has come to be called the “Rank and Yank” system of evaluation in business (a.k.a, forced ranking, stacked ranking, forced distribution, etc..). Former Chief Executive Jack Welch of General Electric popularized the system in the 1980’s as a way to impose the bell...

An article written by S. Jay Samuels and Yi-Chen Wu, Department of Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota, The Effects of Immediate Feedback on Reading Achievement stated, “The treatment effect showed that students in the immediate feedback condition were significantly superior on measures of passage comprehension and composite comprehension.” Their conclusion was that if students know what the goal of the reading assignment is and they are given immediate feedback they are able to self-monitor and regulate reading behaviors at a higher success rate. Prepdog....

A report from Scholastic and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, called Primary Sources: America’s Teachers on the Teaching Profession, claims that the average teacher works 10 hours and 40 minutes a day on average which equates to a 53 hour work week. A 185 day teacher contract would equal 49.3 (normal fourty hour week) weeks, with 2 weeks and 3.5 days off for the year. Some argue that teachers are paid too much and get a lot of time off, I refer those people to the numbers. It is our goal at Prepdog.com and Prepdog.org to provide teachers with tools...